Outsourcing companies. Outsourcing - what is it in simple words. Maintenance of enterprise information systems

This article will focus on outsourcing. For our country, this phenomenon is relatively new and therefore needs explanation.

It is commonly believed that total globalization is not conducive to the emergence and development of highly specialized specialists: everyone supposedly needs universal employees capable of performing a wide range of jobs. But in reality things are not quite like that. The knowledge of “generalists” is usually superficial. Such workers do not have the qualifications necessary to truly perform complex tasks. That is why many companies that do not have specialized specialists use the services of outsourcers.

What functions does outsourcing perform?

The concept of "outsourcing" is borrowed from English language. It is formed by two words: out, that is, “outside, external” and source – “source”. In business, outsourcing refers to the transfer of certain functions of a company to another company that specializes exclusively in performing this type of work.

As a rule, these works do not relate to the main activity of the first company. By concluding an agreement with each other, organizations carry out an exchange that is beneficial to both parties.

Outsourcing and one-time support are two different things. Outsourcing implies concluding a contract for the provision of services for a certain (quite long) time, while one-time support is an episodic measure.

Why do many businessmen find outsourcing profitable? Mainly because they do not want to waste staff time and effort on so-called “related activities”: accounting, maintenance, website support.

Outsourcing gives a company the opportunity to transfer the right to perform certain tasks to employees with appropriate qualifications and focus on its core business.

What are the types of outsourcing?

Production outsourcing. In this case, the outsourcer is responsible for performing certain production tasks. Example: an advertising agency orders the printing of booklets from a printing house.
Business process outsourcing. In this case, the company transfers the right to conduct some “minor” business processes to an outsourcer. Example: accounting services.
IT outsourcing. In this case, a third-party organization receives the right to conduct all processes related to information technology. Such processes include: technical support, website development, maintenance and repair of office equipment, software installation.

About the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing

A manager, thinking about the possibility of transferring certain functions of his company to an outsourcer, should not completely copy the business models of his American and European colleagues. He needs to take into account the economic situation in the country and the characteristics of the market segment.

Outsourcing is a relatively young business area. There is no guarantee that it will solve all the company's problems and bring benefits.

The point of outsourcing is to “relieve” the business of unnecessary burden, i.e. non-core and highly specialized activities.

Pros:

Reducing company costs. She no longer needs to expand her staff or support secondary structures. In some cases, outsourcing helps reduce transaction costs. Moreover, the company gets the opportunity to turn some fixed costs into variable ones.
Concentration of resources on core production processes,improving operational control. This is important for the strategic development of the company. Among other things, the implementation of new production solutions is simplified and management processes are accelerated.
Technological improvement. If the company’s staff does not have professionals in any field, they can be hired “outside”. Since the outsourcing company, according to the contract, exercises strict control over the activities of its employees, clients of the hiring company have the opportunity to receive high-quality services.

Cons:

Increased costs. This happens when a company transfers too many of its functions to an outsourcer. Before switching to an outsourcing program, company management needs to carefully calculate possible costs and compare their value with the desired economic result. An increase in transaction costs cannot be ruled out. And finally, the outsourcing company may simply go bankrupt.
Partial or complete loss of control over transferred processes. The connection between production and management processes is disrupted, and the latter become more inert.
Possibility of concentrating all production processes in one place. This slows down and complicates business processes.
Uncertainty regarding outsourcing in legislation. Moreover, some managers do not want to use the services third party specialists, fearing their violation of the contract and/or information leaks.

Examples of successful use of outsourcing

Ford. The first businessman to appreciate the advantages of production outsourcing was the American auto tycoon Henry Ford. He discovered that self-sufficiency in business is an illusion. Of course, at first Ford personally controlled the technological and management processes. But he noticed that it was too expensive to conduct all possible areas of activity, and he resorted to the help of outside specialists who took on some of the functions. IN at the moment The automaker produces less than a third of all components. The rest are produced by numerous outsourcers.

IKEA. Another company that successfully uses outsourcing is IKEA. The “furniture giant” practically does not have its own production. But he has 2.5 thousand verified suppliers from different countries peace. IKEA logistics are also handled by third party companies. Thus, the famous Swedish company concentrated its efforts exclusively on retail trade, while its outsourced assistants conduct business processes and provide all sorts of related services.

Kodak. Kodak once made a fateful decision to transfer all areas related to high technology, IBM company. In those days, IBM did everything possible to gain a foothold in the IT market. Cooperation with Kodak resulted in benefits for both parties.

Global outsourcing market: prospects

It has already been proven that outsourcing is an excellent solution for those companies that do not have the resources to support all production and management processes.

It follows that outsourcing is gaining popularity. Despite the inevitable risks, many company executives are seriously considering the possibility of delegating some functions to third parties.

Outstaffing is the use of the labor of specialists who are not part of the company’s staff. In other words, this is staff rental.

An outstaffer is just an intermediary responsible for concluding contracts between the parties. In outsourcing there are no intermediaries.

Hello, dear readers of the blog site! When working on the Internet or even just surfing, you often come across terms that are not always clear to the inexperienced user. Therefore, valuable time has to be spent searching for adequate definitions.

This is especially true for concepts borrowed from foreign languages (mostly English, which serves as the language of international communication). Outsourcing is just such a term that requires additional clarification, which is what we will now do.

Moreover, I will try to give an explanation in the simplest words, and not in abstruse definitions, so that it is clear to everyone without exception, otherwise what is the point of this publication. Moreover, I will try to demonstrate existing species outsourcing using very specific examples.

What is outsourcing with available examples

To begin with, let us immediately give a clear definition of this concept, and only then we will discuss in more detail about its essence. This term comes from English outsource(outsource - external resource) and its derivative outsourcing(the process of using an external resource).

The meaning of the word outsourcing in the vast majority of cases is inextricably linked with business, and it is used both in real life, and in online entrepreneurship. In any enterprise, even the smallest one, with a small number of staff, along with the main one, several related business processes take place at once and need to be managed. This includes accounting, transportation, logistics, the use of IT (IT) technologies, working with personnel, etc. These are all potential outsourcing services.

So, we can answer the question quite specifically: What is outsourcing in simple words? In essence, this is the transfer of some related functions of the company on the basis of contracts to third-party services (outsourcers).

Moreover, in this case, you not only relieve several “headaches” at once, but also get a very high-quality result, since, as you know, highly specialized specialists know the work in their field an order of magnitude better than generalists, which is logical.

Of course, you have to pay for everything in this life, both literally and figuratively, outsourcing is no exception. But we’ll talk about this in more detail below. And now I want to move on to real examples to demonstrate the above.

Think, An online store can serve as a clear example. Let's say you yourself are a good specialist in the field of creating websites and attracting potential clients. But this is not all, since you need to communicate with clients, and in this regard, a call center is required.

In addition, ordered goods require delivery to their destination, so there is a need for logistics specialists, and turnover should be somehow tracked (accounting). In general, it is impossible to do without appropriate structuring, otherwise there will be no success.

This is where outsourcing comes to the rescue. You can focus on the main direction of your business, and you can delegate the solution of related tasks to specialists (call center, accounting services, delivery of goods) on the basis of an outsourcing services agreement.

Another illustrative example the following may serve. Let's say you have your own website. To host it, a specialized server is required, provided by , which, in turn, can be considered an outsourcer. After all, he takes upon himself the responsibility to ensure the reliable functioning of your project.

Promotion of a web resource can be left to an SEO company, the same can be done for the actual creation of a corporate website, its maintenance, including installation and configuration of software, etc. All this can logically be attributed to IT outsourcing.

If we take a large corporation, then it is possible to outsource many areas at once: advertising department, sales, personnel, accounting, legal department, security functions etc. Naturally, solving all these problems requires hiring personnel, the provision of which is the responsibility of the outsourcer.

Main, need to understand the difference between an ordinary service that provides one-time services, and an outsourcer that performs the necessary functions on for a long time(from several months to several years) based on the contract.

Types of outsourcing

Well, simple examples we have considered. Now, to complete the picture, we should systematize the information received and list the types of outsourcing and how they are characterized:

1. Production outsourcing— production of products (in whole or in part) or individual components is transferred to a third party. You can see examples everywhere. Let's say, for a well-known large automobile company (for example, Ford), components are manufactured not only at various factories, but also in different countries.

2. IT— I have already mentioned this type of outsourcing. It involves delegating programming functions to third-party companies, creating websites, including hosting services, developing, configuring and maintaining software.

3. Business process outsourcing— transfer of secondary functions (one or more) to the outside. This could be, for example, financial services, including accounting, marketing, logistics, and personnel issues.

4. Knowledge Management— this type of outsourcing involves the administration of processes that require serious analytics (use of intelligence), which may be needed in the future, including for making important decisions.

Outsourcing services can be classified according to form and in this case, they are divided into outsourcing in the field of IT, personnel management, marketing communications, legal, information support, publishing, logistics and social services.

Pros and cons of outsourcing, as well as its prospects

As in any business, when deciding whether to outsource certain functions of a firm or company, you need to think carefully. Situations are quite possible when outsourcing may become economically unprofitable and even cause losses.

Therefore, it is time to analyze the positive and negative aspects outsourcing, which undoubtedly exist. TO benefits The following can be included:

This is much cheaper than maintaining your own department to solve related problems. Sometimes the services of a high-quality specialist with a high salary need to be used a limited number of times, while outsourcing allows you to adjust the frequency and volume of necessary work
Provides an opportunity to increase the efficiency of business processes by optimizing costs and turning them from permanent to temporary
Allows you to concentrate on running your core business and working with clients
Creates favorable conditions to structure work with personnel and reduces the risk of undesirable situations (unplanned dismissal of valuable employees, sudden absence due to illness, etc.)

As disadvantages it is possible to highlight the possibility of disputes arising in relation to contractual obligations, risk of leakage confidential information, working relationships with personnel who are not a permanent part of the company.

In addition, it is necessary to clearly calculate how necessary it is to delegate certain business processes to third-party services; mistakes in this aspect can result in financial losses. However, clear and scrupulous analytical work in this direction can reduce the impact of cons to the minimum limit.

Well, as a summary, it should be added that outsourcing as a management strategy has long been used in the advanced countries of the world and is gradually spreading to modern stage its influence in the post-Soviet space. It is already proving its effectiveness, including when doing business on the Internet.

There is an opinion that in times of general globalization and the rapid development of the business segment of the economy, being a highly specialized specialist is extremely unprofitable. This is a completely false statement. The narrower the specialization of a company or person, the higher the professionalism and deeper the knowledge. If some related activities seem burdensome to the company in terms of money or other costs, outsourcing comes to the rescue.

Outsourcing, definition and origin of the word

The word “outsourcing” is of English origin and comes from the merger of two words: out “external” and source “source”. Thus, outsourcing is, in simple words, the process of a company transferring part of its production or business processes to another company that is an expert in this field.

Delegating processes not related to the main production, but are strategically important for the outsourcer (the company taking on “other people’s” functions), the company makes a mutually beneficial exchange.

It is worth distinguishing between the concepts of one-time support and outsourcing. One-time support is episodic in nature, and an agreement is concluded with the outsourcing company for the provision of outsourcing services for a certain period of time.

What pushes companies to resort to outsourcing? First of all unwillingness to waste precious time for areas accompanying the main activity: software, accounting, technical maintenance.

Outsourcing allows you to entrust the management of these areas to professionals, and concentrate all your efforts on solving the main strategic and production tasks.

Types of outsourcing

Production outsourcing. Some production functions are transferred to a third party. For example, advertising agencies that use the production facilities of a printing house.
Business process outsourcing. The company transfers business processes that are not its main activity to a third party. A classic example is outsourcing of accounting services.
IT outsourcing. The company's information systems are transferred for maintenance to organizations involved in technical support and software. The list of transferred functions may include: website creation, software support or development, maintenance of computer and related equipment.

When transferring auxiliary business processes to an outsourcing company, they implement . Correctly selected metrics improve the quality of interaction between companies.

Outsourcing allows companies to focus on what matters most. Diversification - expand the scope of an organization’s activities or product range, read more about diversification.

Advantages and Disadvantages

When deciding to outsource some functions, you should not rely only on the experience of Western colleagues. Should be taken into account general condition economy and the position of the target market segment.

However, one cannot be one hundred percent sure of the success of this enterprise. This is due to some features inherent in outsourcing as a developing area of business.

The main task of outsourcing is to move non-core and highly specialized areas of activity outside the scope of the business.

Let's start with the obvious advantages that come from outsourcing processes related to the main activity.

WITH economic point From a perspective, engaging an outsourcer allows a company to significantly reduce costs. After all, the company will not have to maintain an additional structure and increase its staff. Transaction costs may also decrease. Some fixed costs can be transformed into variable costs depending on the needs of the company in a particular period of time.
From the point of view of implementing strategic tasks, outsourcing makes it possible concentrate resources on core production, and improve operational control. In addition, the process of introducing new technological or management operations is facilitated.
On the technological side, outsourcing opens up access to higher technologies. If the staff does not have the necessary specialists, they can be attracted through an outsourcing program. The quality of service when engaging an outsourcer increases significantly, since the third-party company undertakes to control the quality of the work provided under the contract.

Of course there is also reverse side medals. Let us outline the main shortcomings that may prevent a company from achieving its desired goal through outsourcing.

Rising costs. This is possible if a company outsources too many processes. In addition, the implementation of an outsourcing system requires careful calculation of costs and comparison of them with the expected economic effect. Transaction costs may also increase. The possibility of bankruptcy of the outsourcing company should not be ruled out.
Control over the execution of outsourced processes may be lost. Management may lose the connection between management and business practices. Managerial flexibility is reduced.
Danger of concentration technological processes in one place. This again deprives the company of flexibility in certain business processes.
Lack of clear legislative framework outsourcing. In addition, many companies are afraid to delegate business processes to others due to fear of information leakage or possible violation of contractual relationships.

The definition of a company's gross profit or and how is used to evaluate the operating performance of a firm.

For more information about the use of outsourcing in the activities of online stores, see the link. From delivery and outsourcing of accounting services to the transfer of almost all functions of an online store to the management of external companies.

Outsourcing examples

Henry Ford can be called the forefather of production outsourcing. He was one of the first to understand that no company can be self-sufficient.

The head of the automobile company sought to personally control all stages of production, but he was soon faced with the exorbitant costs spent on servicing all areas of the company's activities.

Then he turned to independent companies for help, which took on some of the tasks. Currently, Ford produces only 30% of its components independently; the rest of the production is outsourced.

Another giant that knows firsthand the benefits of outsourcing is IKEA. Own production IKEA has virtually none; instead, it cooperates with 2,500 suppliers, proven over the years. IKEA's logistics functions are also delegated to a third party.

It turns out that IKEA is directing all its resources to retail business organization, and the remaining services and business infrastructure are outsourced.

Kodak decided in the early 90s that leadership in the field of high technology was not its strategic goal. It outsourced all IT areas to IBM, which was precisely trying to gain leadership in this segment. An ideal example of mutually beneficial outsourcing.

Prospects for the development of the outsourcing market

In general, outsourcing seems to be a profitable deal for many companies that do not have enough resources for total control of all stages and processes of production. World statistics confirm this.

The American Management Association conducted a survey of 600 firms. It turned out that 20% of them had already outsourced some financial operations, and 80% had outsourced administrative functions.

Such statistics give reason to assume that an increasing number of companies will be looking at the possibility of using outsourcing.

Updated 04/01/2014. The article is relevant for the entire 2014.
Today, people have come to understand that the narrower a person’s specialization, the more competent he is in it. The professionalism of such a person is beyond doubt. But, often, for medium and small enterprises, keeping such a person on staff is an exorbitant burden. They simply cannot pay for it. This is where the concept of “outsourcing” comes into force. What is this?

Outsourcing is the transfer by an organization of some production functions or business processes to a third party company that specializes in desired area. But, in contrast to support that is one-time or episodic in nature (came, did, left), functions for professional support of the performance of individual systems are transferred to Outsourcing on the basis of a permanent contract (for a period of 1 year).

What are the types of outsourcing?

It is traditional to highlight the following areas:

- in most cases this is programming; website creation; software development and maintenance; equipment maintenance (peripheral setup: printers, mice, scanners). This may also concern the development of fairly large and complex computing systems, as is the case with data centers.
Production outsourcing— transfer of some production functions to third-party manufacturers. For example, advertising agencies that use printing houses and their printing facilities, or wine houses that purchase wines and bottle them under their own brands.
Business process outsourcing— transfer to the executing organization of a separate business process (or several), which is not the main one. For example, accounting, personnel management, advertising, logistics, marketing.
Knowledge management outsourcing— management of those types of processes that require a more in-depth study or serious analytical processing of large amounts of data, creation and management of knowledge bases (KB), which will subsequently be used to support decision making. This type of outsourcing is just beginning to gain popularity in the United States.

Let's take a closer look at one of the areas, namely the IT industry.
Here, outsourcing means transferring services to a third party company information systems.
Generally speaking, to run a successful business today it is not at all necessary to perform all the functions of the company with the help of your own staff, because you can shift the management of these processes to the shoulders of a specialized organization. A company that takes on “other people’s” functions is called an outsourcing company, or an outsourcer.

The most widespread in practice is subscription service for computers. Thus, the customer is offered a full package of services, allowing him not to hire a system administrator.
The complex usually includes the following types services:

configuration and hardware of the equipment;
software configuration and updating;
protecting the network from unauthorized access from the outside;
antivirus protection;
timely repair and replacement of supported equipment;
backup of information (backup);
consulting and training of personnel.

Among the related services, we can note the gasket local networks, IP telephony and PBX setup, IT audit and consulting. That's why this type outsourcing often takes the form of servicing the entire complex of information systems of the client enterprise.

Data processing centers (DPC)

Today, even small and medium-sized companies are increasingly faced with the need for large calculations. Our own capacities are not enough and here data centers and Data Processing Centers come to the rescue. This saves the company from raising financing, solving problems with energy supply, purchasing server equipment and ensuring security. Data centers also periodically require modernization. This is simply not profitable for small companies. It is easier and cheaper to enter into an SLA agreement with a commercial data center and receive data processing services as a service.

History of appearance in Russia

At the origins of outsourcing in Russian Federation private security companies have emerged, which have allowed hundreds of enterprises to protect their business, no matter how small or large, in a better and more professional manner, without having to maintain several full-time security guards. At first everything was organized at a low level. But gradually the niche developed, and marketing became increasingly important. At that time, there was simply a catastrophic shortage of marketing specialists, which created fertile ground for the emergence and establishment of specialized advertising agencies that were capable of managing complex projects.

Following advertising agencies, PR agencies and some research companies have also stepped up.
And in the now distant 1998, the Runet boom began. It was he who led to the emergence of not only thousands of websites, but also a gigantic market for services for their creation and promotion. For many people, this was an amazing opportunity, as a result of which 3 hosting companies appeared (like three pillars): masterhost, RTKomm.ru and Utransit (formerly Valuehost). According to independent research from RUnet, these three companies today account for more than 65% of Russian websites.

Now you know what outsourcing is, what types of outsourcing there are, its history and formation.

The term "outsourcing" has received widespread V modern world. What does this foreign word mean and what is it used for?

The term "outsourcing" comes from English word outsourcing. It means the use of any external sources or resources. In the business environment, outsourcing is the transfer by an organization (under a pre-drafted agreement) of any type of production and entrepreneurial activity to another organization that operates in a certain area.

Unlike various works that are performed on a one-time basis, periodically and with a limited beginning or end in time, outsourcing is the transfer of functions for the professional performance of services for the uninterrupted functioning of systems and any infrastructure for the period of a long-term contract. Typically, the duration of an outsourcing contract is at least one year.

In Russian business, entrepreneurial practices for the needs of outsourcing are transferred such functions as accounting, ensuring the functioning of the office, translation services, transport services, supporting the functioning of computer networks and information infrastructure, any work in the field of advertising, as well as ensuring security.

If you use the information from the Institute of Outsourcing, this area of activity today is one of the developing types of optimization of the work of companies and enterprises. Equally important, the highest growth rates can be seen in the areas of financial services and accounting.

Outsourcing efficiency

Data collected back in 1997 by the American Management Association showed that even at that time, about 20 percent of all 600 companies surveyed had outsourced at least a certain portion of all their financial and accounting tasks, and 80 percent of companies had outsourced almost 80 percent of all its functions are administrative.

What types of outsourcing exist today?

Production outsourcing

This type of outsourcing (also called industrial) performs the functions of transferring part of the production or the entire production of any elements, components and parts to a third-party company.

This type of outsourcing is especially popular among various companies in the computer components production sector.

IT outsourcing

As it is also called, ITO implies delegation to any professional team to resolve certain issues that are related to the development, implementation or maintenance of information systems, both at the level of the entire infrastructure of an enterprise (maintenance of equipment or software), and a certain set work related to the development or support of the normal functioning of a number of areas of systems (for example, programming, testing and much more).

Knowledge management outsourcing

Such a complex name means that this type of outsourcing is necessary in order to manage processes that require fairly in-depth study or serious data processing analytics.

This type of outsourcing will also be required for the formation and management of so-called “knowledge bases”. They may be needed to support the adoption of certain decisions. It is also worth adding that knowledge management outsourcing is just beginning to gain popularity in the United States.

Legal outsourcing

There are a number of rather difficult issues associated with outsourcing. For example, in a number of situations, a company is obliged to transfer functions to carry out certain activities to other companies.

A striking example is when a mutual investment fund does not have the ability to keep records on its own (usually the problem also lies in the fact that mutual funds cannot even monitor and manage their own assets). For this reason, a mutual fund is forced to resort to the services of a management organization, an auditor, and even a custodian.

The most popular types of outsourcing

Already today in the world one can count a huge number various types business process outsourcing. Some of these types of outsourcing are quite successfully used in Russia. Depending on some of the specifics and scope of activity, tasks and goals in each specific organization, the processes transferred to any third-party organizations for execution may differ greatly from each other.

However, there are some striking examples that perfectly illustrate the importance of outsourcing for many companies, regardless of their size.

Outsourcing in the field of information technology

The rapid development of the information systems sector has led to the fact that they can also outsource and take on a number of tasks from third-party companies. Until the 90s, many types of outsourcing (for example, offshore outsourcing of companies performing the function of a call center) were difficult to implement. This was due to a number of technical reasons and circumstances.

Often, the concept of “outsourcing” information processes» understand the outsourcing of IT processes to companies that are in no way connected with the IT industry. In Western Europe, the USA and Canada, IT outsourcing has become widespread in recent years, which has some characteristic features. The point is that the contractor receives the entire IT infrastructure of his customer. This is a rather risky option when it comes to expensive equipment that can easily be damaged.

For this reason, such an approach is extremely rare in Russia. Most often, companies choose to use limited types of such outsourcing. For example, application hosting, technical support for small corporate websites.

Also today, the main providers of outsourcing services in the IT sector are the so-called “system integrators,” although over the past couple of years a set of serious Russian players have already appeared who consider outsourcing the main type of their professional activity.

Also, in recent years, large global companies such as IBM and HP have increasingly entered the Russian market. There is also the Saas model, which can also be considered as an option for outsourcing in the field of software operation.

Outsourcing in the field of information technology today is the transfer to a contractor of a whole set of internal services or work of the customer organization. This set of works may also include the use software products the customer company, some applications and parts of the infrastructure.

The most simple option This practice can be called banal hosting of a company website. Many modern organizations use outsourcing, which can be called a sign of the popularity of this type of service. Outsourcing is also quite beneficial for the end consumer.

In Russia, outsourcing can be considered as a service that is organized by a specific company, where a couple of services can be provided comprehensively in order to cover as many of the needs of a potential client as possible. Despite this, in reality the emphasis is on a specific service (the most profitable for the outsourcing company: a service on which you can make great money).

Maintenance of company infocommunication systems

Maintenance of personal computers on a subscription basis is the most popular type of outsourcing in the field of information technology.

With this type of service, the customer receives an offer for a comprehensive set of various services that will allow him to do it completely without intervention or at least significantly reduce his workload.

What does computer subscription service include?

With this type of service, the customer receives a whole range of different services, which allows him to do it almost completely without any administration. Now the outsourcing company will be engaged in setting up and updating the technical part of computers, setting up and updating software, creating effective anti-virus protection, prevention (of an anti-virus nature), timely repair and replacement of equipment, various preventive measures, backup important information, consulting and training of personnel on issues related to the competent and effective use of computer technology.

Also, some companies providing outsourcing services resort to a number of related services. For example, supporting the performance of office equipment, upgrading the computer fleet, laying local networks, IP telephony and setting up a PBX, auditing and consulting. It is for this reason that servicing just one computer network can take the form of servicing an entire complex of information systems of the client company.

Outsourcing is also used in the financial sector.

Most often you can find accounting outsourcing. The thing is that accounting is quite difficult and this difficult process may require some specialized knowledge. In such a situation, the simplest and most effective solution would be to outsource accounting. This will save time and effort on other (more important) tasks.